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Health workforce shortages and maldistribution continue to constrain the equitable delivery of healthcare services to much of the Australian population living outside of metropolitan settings. The Private Hospital Stream (PHS) funds private hospitals to deliver medical internships for international students and support junior doctors to work in expanded settings (including partnerships between private hospital providers, rural public hospitals, and other training settings working as part of ‘expanded training networks'). Its goal was to strengthen the medical workforce supply in rural, regional and remote areas.
The approach designed by HealthQ provided each of the nine funded program sites to showcase their approach, achievements and outcomes as part of the evaluation case study.
This approach valued the unique context and design implemented at each site and afforded local management and executives an opportunity to celebrate the program successes as well as addressing the evaluation's lines of enquiry in a way that was reflective and collaborative.
Our assessment of the expanded training networks utilised a partnership assessment tool that enabled partners to reflect on the partnership strengths and opportunities for improvement, often delivering insights to each partner beyond the scope of the evaluation.
The evaluation identified that private hospitals have made a valuable contribution to national junior doctor training capacity. The evaluation recommended areas of enhancement and redesign to changes in environmental factors (e.g. industrial relations, training reform, changes in supervision arrangements), policy changes and an emerging contemporary evidence base.
We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians of the Country on which we live, work and play and honour their connection to Country and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.
